Hard disk drives (HDD) include read and write transducers that reside within a slider, which flies over a recording media/disk. Increasing demand in data density requires that the read and write transducers fly closer to the media. Accordingly, the fly-height between the slider and disk is increasingly important as storage densities also increase.
A thermal fly-height control (TFC) device (e.g., heater element) can be disposed within a slider to contort the slider near the read and write transducers (or elements), which lowers the fly-height for the read and write transducers. To verify the relative fly-height, the read-back signal's amplitude and a Wallace spacing loss relationship can be utilized. However, the read-back signal measurement may not provide an accurate fly-height. With a slider flying as close as possible to a disk, write element slider-media contact (WEC) may occur, which creates unstable slider-fly dynamics, which in turn, creates data imprint errors in the media. Moreover, fly-height is also affected by lubricant-slider interaction and electrostatic force.
The drawings referred to in this description should be understood as not being drawn to scale except if specifically noted.